HOSPITAL FEES

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 166, 16 July 1920, Page 3

HOSPITAL FEES

DIFFERENTIATION DESIRED.

A deputation from the British Medical Association, Canterbury Division, waited upon the Ashburton Hospital Board this week, with reference to the admission to the hospital of patients who could afford to pay for private treatment, as it was an encouragement to all and sundry to believe that they were entitled to hospital treatment, which relieved them of the necessity of paying private fees. The deputation was not aware that the Board had taken any steps to correct this impression, arid therefore concluded that the Board approved .of the practice.

The deputation, whicli consisted of Bts. C. H. Newton, J. Guthrie, Acland, Crawshaw, and Lyons, went into the wholo question of hospital management and control, and suggested that the Board should decide to run the hospital in the way it was now being run, or allow medical practitioners to enter the hospital to visit their own patients, who- could

afford to pay, and the poor people who could not afford to pay. The deputation wished to do their best to solve the problem in a very friendly spirit, but it was an injustice to the medical profeission to allow well-to-do patients to have all the advantages of up-to-date hospital treatment for exactly the same fees as poorer patients who could not afford to pay the full fees. After a number of questions had been answered, the chairman (Mr O. Reid) informed the deputation that the Board would go very fully into the matter and inform the deputation of its decison. A sub-committee j was set up to prepare a report.